Haven't posted on our blog in a while. Not much to say, I guess :-) Still waiting, waiting is hard, moving at a snail's pace, waiting is Hard, life is busy around us while we wait, waiting is HARD....
Have I mentioned how hard it is to wait for God's perfect timing? Harder than I ever thought was possible.
Our April waitlist #'s are....#103 girl, #86 boy. We only moved 2 spots on the boy list. Waiting. is. HARD.
We don't fully understand what is going on in Ethiopia. Government is slowing adoptions, requiring more and more paperwork all the time. Kiddos need homes, parents need kiddos. Yet it remains so much more complex than one can even begin to explain. Babies are dying while waiting for "paperwork" to come through. Hearts breaking here.
Folks, can I ask you to pray? RIGHT NOW!!!! Get down on your knees, on your faces, humble yourselves, and PRAY to our Lord for Ethiopia, the government, all involved in adoptions, and most especially for the kiddos, their birth families, and their waiting forever families. PRAY for paperwork to come through on waiting kiddos, PRAY for Ethiopia to process adoptions quickly and smoothly, PRAY for broken hearts and waivering faith. PRAY NOW, and everyday!! I am praying for God to move mountains in Ethiopia. Our child is there. Thank you all.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Thursday, January 31, 2013
"Are you even close YET???"
"You must be gettng close to be getting your child, right???"
"HOW much longer are you expecting to wait?"
"It's GOT to be getting close now, yes??????"
"Are you serious????You'll be waiting at least another YEAR??
If this were a game of jeopardy......the "question" would be "The Questions most people ask pertaining to your adoption", hehe!!!
We are 7 months into the wait.....and we are expecting to wait another 17 or more months. Yep. 17 MORE months!!! We recieved our January waitlist numbers, and we are officially #107 girl and #91 boy!!
What's that you ask???? I'm forgetting to tell you the sibling #'s?? Nope, not forgetting...We actually made some changes to our parameters in the last couple months. We felt like we were putting "conditions" on this thing that God has called us to do. Like saying, "We'll take one of your children, but only a certain one." The more we thought and prayed about it, the more that didn't make sense to us. What if OUR child whom God has chosen for us is not 12 months and under? So, we have updated our parameters to include ONE child age 0-30 months at time of referral. We still put a limit on the age....but figure that would make our kiddo about 3 when he or she comes home. Our agency has a strict birth-order rule in that they will not approve a child who is older than children already in the home. We also thought that, since we don't home-school, bringing home a school age child would be too much a challange for us and the child. And why not siblings anymore? Well, our first parameters, that were willing to accept siblings, came from my heart, not from reality. We realized that we felt it would be just too stressful to bring home more than one.....worrying about bonding and attachment with one will be challenging enough....2 would put more stress on ALL of us. Also, money factored into this....Our children will be attending a private Christian school, which we LOVE, so we had to bear this in mind when thinking about the coming years, paying 3 or more tuitions. Plus, it is an additional $9000 PER CHILD in referral fees, not to mention that many more airfares to pay for. It just wasn't feasable. So, we are now praying for our TWO children.....Jaden and Little Nichols.
Changing the parameters doesn't necessarily mean we move up on the list. We still have the same numbers, meaning there are that many more families ahead of us. But it could be that the families ahead of us are waiting for an infant....so if, perhaps, we were number #40 on the list, and all the families ahead of us are waiting for an infant, and a toddler comes into the orphanage.....then all 39 of those families would be bypassed and we would recieve that referral. :-) Make sense?
If I analyzed every little detail about the waitlist, and the parameters of each family ahead of us, I would drive myself crazy. Trust me, I've tried, and finally said....you know what???? God's got this. He knows. It will be what it will be, WHEN it will be. God's GOT THIS!!!
More to come.....I don't update as much as I used to, I know. This is the boring part of the journey, for all our supporters, anyways!! I feel your prayers, though......I know you're there. Thank you. :-)
"HOW much longer are you expecting to wait?"
"It's GOT to be getting close now, yes??????"
"Are you serious????You'll be waiting at least another YEAR??
If this were a game of jeopardy......the "question" would be "The Questions most people ask pertaining to your adoption", hehe!!!
We are 7 months into the wait.....and we are expecting to wait another 17 or more months. Yep. 17 MORE months!!! We recieved our January waitlist numbers, and we are officially #107 girl and #91 boy!!
What's that you ask???? I'm forgetting to tell you the sibling #'s?? Nope, not forgetting...We actually made some changes to our parameters in the last couple months. We felt like we were putting "conditions" on this thing that God has called us to do. Like saying, "We'll take one of your children, but only a certain one." The more we thought and prayed about it, the more that didn't make sense to us. What if OUR child whom God has chosen for us is not 12 months and under? So, we have updated our parameters to include ONE child age 0-30 months at time of referral. We still put a limit on the age....but figure that would make our kiddo about 3 when he or she comes home. Our agency has a strict birth-order rule in that they will not approve a child who is older than children already in the home. We also thought that, since we don't home-school, bringing home a school age child would be too much a challange for us and the child. And why not siblings anymore? Well, our first parameters, that were willing to accept siblings, came from my heart, not from reality. We realized that we felt it would be just too stressful to bring home more than one.....worrying about bonding and attachment with one will be challenging enough....2 would put more stress on ALL of us. Also, money factored into this....Our children will be attending a private Christian school, which we LOVE, so we had to bear this in mind when thinking about the coming years, paying 3 or more tuitions. Plus, it is an additional $9000 PER CHILD in referral fees, not to mention that many more airfares to pay for. It just wasn't feasable. So, we are now praying for our TWO children.....Jaden and Little Nichols.
Changing the parameters doesn't necessarily mean we move up on the list. We still have the same numbers, meaning there are that many more families ahead of us. But it could be that the families ahead of us are waiting for an infant....so if, perhaps, we were number #40 on the list, and all the families ahead of us are waiting for an infant, and a toddler comes into the orphanage.....then all 39 of those families would be bypassed and we would recieve that referral. :-) Make sense?
If I analyzed every little detail about the waitlist, and the parameters of each family ahead of us, I would drive myself crazy. Trust me, I've tried, and finally said....you know what???? God's got this. He knows. It will be what it will be, WHEN it will be. God's GOT THIS!!!
More to come.....I don't update as much as I used to, I know. This is the boring part of the journey, for all our supporters, anyways!! I feel your prayers, though......I know you're there. Thank you. :-)
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
1 year
One year ago today, we recieved this email from All God's Children International:
"Dear Kevin and
Jamie,
I just wanted to
follow up with an email to let you know that we reviewed your formal application
and you have been approved to move forward with the Ethiopia program."
Our lives have forever changed since we read those words. We spent 6 months gathering and notarizing documents like you would not believe. We've been on the waitlist for another 6 months. We are preparing to wait another 18 months to be matched with OUR child. In the last year, I can say that I have felt every. single. emotion. known to man. And even some that are only known to woman! There is not even an hour that goes by that I don't think about our little one. I gotta be completely honest....More often than not, I am just plain scared. Terrified. Unsure. Uneasy. Completely and totally unprepared for what's to come, because, really.....I have no idea of what's to come. I'm reading books. I'm googling like crazy. I'm praying, oh my glory I AM PRAYING!! I'm telling you, if you ever want to go head to head with Satan, all you have to do is say YES to God. Doesn't matter what He asks of you....for us it was to adopt one of his precious children. All has gone pretty smoothly in our process thus far.....but the enemy knows we are doing God's will, and I know that it is the enemy that puts fear and doubt in my life and mind. I am doing my best to deal with that.
The thing I keep going back to is that as much as I am scared, unsure, uneasy, terrified, and unprepared.....Guess what. So is our child. A million times more.
Don't get me wrong.....I am also a decent amount of excited!! There is nothing that I love more than being a mom. It is what I prayed for for SOOO many years. How could I not be excited about the honor to love another little? We have, since joining the waitlist, witnessed many families bring home their babies from Ethiopia, and each and every one of them say the same thing. As hard as it is to wait for your child, as hard as it is (sometimes) to parent these fragile and sometimes broken children, It is so so so so worth it. Oh my glory, He will redeem. I put 100% of my faith in this....He will redeem. He will redeem because we said "YES".
Could I ask for a quick prayer from each of you...every day if you think about it....just pray for us and our child. :-)
Sooo....would you all like to know how we are progressing on the waitlist?? As of December 31st, we are #108 girl, #93 boy, and #47 siblings. yay for double digits on the boy list!! When I think about how much longer we have yet to wait....I think about this.....In 2012, AGCI helped 90 children home to their forever families. So, since we are 93 on the boy list, there is a REALLY good chance we will meet our child in 2013!!! Oh, we can only hope and pray!!
Thank you all for your continued support, and prayers. stay tuned.....I promise to update more, I missed November ;-)
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